READ THE CITIZENS' VOICE

Digital Only Subscription
Read the digital e-Edition of The Citizens' Voice on your PC or mobile device, and have 24/7 access to breaking news, local sports, contests, and more at citizensvoice.com or on our mobile apps.

Digital Services
Have news alerts sent to your mobile device or email, read the e-Edition, sign up for daily newsletters, enter contests, take quizzes, download our mobile apps and see the latest e-circulars.

Contact Us
See department contacts, frequently asked questions, request customer service support, submit a photo or place an ad.

Article Tools

Lois Grimm / For The Citizens' Voice
Above and below: Wyoming Area teachers union President Melissa Dolman addresses the members of the school board Tuesday.

EXETER - The teachers strike in the Wyoming Area School Board has been extremely divisive, but teachers, school board members, parents and other taxpayers at Tuesday's board meeting stood and applauded the board's decision to name Janet M. Serino as superintendent.

Serino, currently the assistant superintendent, will replace Raymond J. Bernardi as superintendent after Bernardi's retirement takes effect in April.

"We just had a historic moment. The first time a woman is superintendent at Wyoming Area," board member Estelle Campenni said, prompting the standing ovation.

Serino, 60, lives in Harding. She has been a district employee for 13 years and graduated from Wyoming Area High School in 1970.

"I promise you I won't disappoint you," Serino told board President John Bolin after the meeting.

The board voted 6-1 to appoint Serino to a five-year term with a starting salary of $113,065. Board member Mary Louise Degnan voted against the appointment, explaining she wanted the board to advertise the job opening and seek other applicants first. Bernardi's annual salary is $124,099.

The ongoing teachers strike, which began three weeks ago, dominated discussions at the meeting. When the board meeting began, Jack Dean, the district's chief labor negotiator, and John Holland, regional field director for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, were bargaining for the first time since the strike began.

"We did not reach an agreement," Melissa Dolman, union president and eighth-grade reading teacher, said after the school board meeting.

Union and district negotiators have been unable to agree to terms on a new compensation package since the teachers' last collective bargaining agreement expired Aug. 31, 2010. State law allows teachers to strike twice in one school year, and a first strike must end when 180 days of school cannot be completed by June 15. This current strike must end Oct. 4.

"We didn't want it to go this long," Dolman told the board last night. "We spent two and a half years of surface bargaining at the table looking at the same things over and over and over again. That is surface bargaining. That's meeting for the sake of saying that you met."

"We have to sit down and talk turkey and stop twisting the truth around - both sides," board member Gil Dominick said. "It's getting ridiculous."

"I agree," Dolman replied.

The average teacher salary was $52,239 last year in the Wyoming Area School District, according the state Department of Education. Current salaries are based on the 2009-10 pay scale from the last collective bargaining agreement.

The pay scale has 16 steps, and each step has 16 columns based on graduate school credits. Under the last agreement, a teacher would advance a step each year until reaching the top step, and salary amounts at the top step increased each year from 2003-04 to 2009-10.

mbuffer@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2073

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.